Peru fresh produce export calendar

Peru’s avocado window runs roughly April to August, opening in March and tailing off in September. It sits on the opposite side of the year from Peru’s blueberry programme, which is what keeps the corridor out of Callao busy year-round rather than seasonally idle.

The window overlaps with Mexico’s flor loca crop at both ends, so European buyers usually have a choice in April and again in September — and no choice at all in June and July, when Peru is effectively the Northern Hemisphere summer supply.

Roughly September to February, peaking hard from October to December. This is the programme that built the reefer lane out of Paita, and it is the single busiest thing Peru ships.

Two consequences follow from that concentration. Equipment gets tight in the peak weeks and bookings roll; and the fruit has the least shelf life in hand of anything on this page, so a slow voyage is not a scheduling inconvenience but a quality claim.

Roughly December to March, opening in November. Peru’s grape window sits just ahead of Chile’s and overlaps with it, which is why a European buyer sees both origins on offer in January.

Red Globe remains the volume variety for Asian markets; the seedless varieties are what European retail buys. The distinction matters for planning because they do not ship on the same schedule.

Roughly December to March out of Piura, shipping through Paita. Kent is the variety European buyers will see almost exclusively.

Peru’s mango window is the one most exposed to weather: an unusually warm year shifts the whole harvest and can compress a three-month programme into six weeks, which then arrives all at once into a market that was planning for a steady flow.

Roughly June to September, filling the gap when Northern Hemisphere citrus is out of season. Peru has moved steadily towards easy-peeler varieties for European retail.

Citrus into the EU is closely inspected, so build the phytosanitary hold into the plan rather than treating it as an exception — the days it costs come off the shelf life the voyage preserved.

Effectively year-round, with a clear volume peak from September to December. The coastal growing regions take two harvests a year, which is why the shoulder band below covers every remaining month rather than a few weeks either side of a season.

Most Peruvian asparagus sails, but that is the American trade. On the European lanes most of it still flies, and whether it should sail at all is a live argument rather than a settled one. The sea case rests on one fast option: Seatrade’s Rayo service — a dedicated banana service, which is why the trade calls it the banana boat — sailing Paita to Dover in 14 days and Vlissingen in 15, weekly and with no transhipment. Asparagus can just about survive two weeks in the box, but it arrives with very little shelf life left, so whatever lands has to sell immediately. The counter-argument is commercial, not logistical: cheaper sea freight cheapens the product on the shelf, and it isn’t as fresh — so some importers keep asparagus air-only and defend the premium. When it does go by sea, the transit is the whole specification.